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Ex BBC journalist speaks about being forced out of BBC News for gender-critical views

Max Thompson

22 November 2025

Naturally, President Trump threatening to sue the BBC for the misleading edit of his speech on January 6th 2021 is dominating the headlines of the BBC bias scandal. However Michael Prescott’s dossier, seen by The Telegraph which led to the resignation of Director General Tim Davie, details concerns that go much deeper, including the BBC’s coverage of the conflict of transgender rights with women’s rights.

Cath Leng is a former chief writer for BBC News, and has spoken publicly about her own experience trying to cover the gender critical side of the debate, telling The Times that the BBC has been “complicit” in censorship. She claims that younger LGBT reporters who worked on the Learning and Identity desk, where these stories were covered, would act as “gatekeepers”, ignoring gender critical stories. Leng claims she witnessed one such colleague being asked by a senior colleague about what language was appropriate to use when covering these issues. They were treated as “experts” by virtue of the fact they were gender ideology believers, says Leng. 

On one occasion, Leng has described how she was told that referring to men who identified as women with male pronouns was to go against the BBC style guide. 

This may sound absurd, especially given the BBC has previously claimed that they are an independent organisation, not influenced by external bodies. Yet in 2018, the BBC published a report alongside Stonewall which recommended that BBC systems and practices were reviewed “to ensure they are inclusive of non-binary genders” and to “provide support, guidance and training for managers supporting transgender staff, particularly when they are transitioning”. A key finding said that “inclusive language, particularly around non-binary gender isn’t always used”. It is clear that recommendations like these being implemented, that the manifestation of gender critical views

One of Michael Prescott’s claims is that coverage of trans issues are biased towards celebrating trans experiences. This aligns with the 2018 report which recommended that the BBC should “empower” their “Content, News and Radio teams to cover LGBT stories and portrayal, and routinely increase the incidental portrayal of LGBT identities”. Leng claims she was “routinely accused of bias” internally for trying time and again to get gender critical stories covered, including Maya Forstater's judgment in 2021 which ruled gender critical beliefs as being protected under the Equality Act 2010. 

Leng has explained how she was also put through a six-month disciplinary after she refused to remove a Twitter post criticising the use of the term ‘cis’. She says she also had two other complaints against her from other staff over editorial decisions regarding gender critical stories. At the Free Speech Union, 40% of our cases are related to transgender ideology and the use of preferred pronouns. Leng eventually accepted a redundancy offer in 2022 due to the pressure. 

Being an impartial news outlet does not just require covering individual stories without bias. It also requires covering a balance of stories to cover all sides of hotly debated topics, particularly in the case of a publicly funded broadcaster which claims to be impartial such as the BBC. In reality, Cath Leng was doing her public service by attempting to balance the coverage, but was shamefully shut down. This type of treatment results in the British public being let down and losing out on their right to impartial news that they pay the BBC for. 

You can read more in The Times.